On Feb. 25, the 25th annual Social Justice Summit will begin at Humboldt State University.

This year’s theme is “Break that Wall” with a focus on “tools for non-violent expressions,” according to the event’s page.

“It means breaking barriers and breaking down walls that are put up … there are physical walls, emotional walls, and other barriers,” said Deema Hindawi, one of the event’s coordinators. “This is a space where you can talk and learn about things you haven’t learned about before.”

This is Hindawi’s second year working on the summit. She said she wanted to make it a week long event this time around rather than sticking to the previous format which fell only on the weekend. This way, she said, students have an easier time attending events, as they’ll likely be on campus anyway. The summit runs from Monday to Friday, with at least one event taking place each day.

The first event, “Heartwork: Love Letters & Languages,” will be hosted by Kim Davalos and explores “the power of language and love as tools for resistance,” according to an event release.

Adrienne Banh, co-coordinator of the summit, said she’s been working to bring Davalos on board since last summer. Banh saw Davalos speak at a conference and was impacted by “how compassionate, genuine and real of a human being she is.”

“She just wants to do this for the greater good,” Banh said.

Davalos’s insight helped Bahn navigate the complexity of her own identity, she said.

“Here people say you’re not American enough, but in Vietnam you’re not Vietnamese enough,” Bahn said. “There is beauty in that too, and she shed light on that — I’ve come to appreciate who I am as a whole.”

Davalos will also give a lecture Monday evening titled “The Rabbit Hole & The Red Queen’s Race.” Davalos will walk through a critical analysis of “Alice in Wonderland,” using the story to draw parallels between our lives and “falling down the rabbit hole.”

On Tuesday, Word Humboldt Collaboration will host an open mic spoken word night at Northtown Coffee.

A self-care workshop will follow Wednesday morning. Attendees will learn about herbal bathing, how to make “bath teas,” sugar scrubs, and rose petal face mists, and can even find a stress relief coloring table.

“I’m really excited for the self-care event,” Hindawi said. “I really understand that as students so many of us get burned out and exhausted and need a moment to have fun.”

Wednesday evening, a panel discussion, “The Other Side of Murder Mountain,” will explore representations of Humboldt County’s culture, place, and cannabis industry. While the Netflix series “Murder Mountain” will be discussed, a description of the event states, “audience members will be engaged by the discussion whether or not they have seen the series.”

The event will be livestreamed, and panelists will consist of representatives from the HSU journalism department, the Lost Coast Outpost, the Humboldt County Growers Alliance, and the Humboldt Mendocino Marijuana Advocacy Project. The discussion will be moderated by Dominic Corva, the founder and executive director of the Cannabis and Social Policy Center who, along with Josh Meisel of HSU, is currently contracted to co-edit “The Interdisciplinary Handbook of Cannabis Research.”

“The discussion will likely range beyond the cannabis industry,” Corva said. “(This) allows the community to speak back to what is a global television show representing their community in a certain way.”

Corva, who has done extensive research on the history of cannabis in Humboldt County, says the cannabis industry began with people who pursued social justice in a variety of forms, going on to form communities that embodied the principles they wished to live. The war on drugs, he said, is in some ways the result of a reaction against social justice movements.

“This documentary shows what has happened 40 years after the drug war, which was a way to have a pretense to arrest leaders of social justice movements,” he said.

Corva said he’s received feedback from people who feel like the ecological activism, environmental consciousness and pursuit of alternative values associated with many communities in Humboldt County were simply glossed over for a focus on the more sinister slice of the cannabis industry. While Corva wouldn’t equate the series to Reefer Madness 2.0, he does feel like it paints a disproportionate picture.

“California’s got ‘Murder Mountain’ on their mind … there may be policy implications,” he said. “There’s a major need for the panel to have the community represent itself.”

On Thursday, there will be a “Brother and Sister Appreciation Night” at the Kate Buchanan Room. “Family feud style games, food, an Open Mic recognizing influential figures, and a slide show recognizing men and women of color” will all be part of the event, which is “meant to be a safe space to highlight both African American women and men during Black history month.”

On Friday, Barbara Curiel, who teaches in both the English and Critical Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies departments at HSU, will host “Border Walls & Borderlands Identities.” Curiel is a specialist in Chicano and Latino Studies, according to the event’s description. On Saturday, the final day of the summit, there will be various workshops throughout the HSU campus from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Hindawi encourages people of all types to attend.

“All these events are for everyone that wants to participate,” she said. “It’s meant to change people in our community — we can’t change the world with one event, but we can change slowly with people we’re working with on our own.”